Estonian Police and Border Guard's new rapid reaction task force, as well as the elite unit of Estonian police, K-Commando, participated in training exercises near Estonia's southeastern border - unprecedented in its scope, it emerged on Thursday.

The Minister of Internal Affairs Hanno Pevkur said during a Cabinet briefing that the training exercises took place on Tuesday and Wednesday and involved special forces and armored vehicles. Air transport was used to transport the special units from Tallinn to Tartu, from where they carried on using vehicles to approach the border.

According to Pevkur, the objective was to test cooperation between the units and their reaction speed. Two illegal immigrants from Sudan were caught in the course of the exercises.

The decision to establish a new border control task force that would carry out special operations was made in October 2014, after the abduction of Estonian intelligence official Eston Kohver. It emerged after the kidnap that long stretches of Estonia-Russia border are not properly marked and border guards are not equipped well enough.